Harmony Winery

Over the past few years, I have really developed an appreciation and love of wine. One thing that I really enjoy doing is wine tastings. Most wineries offer tastings either for free or for a small price. It is always fun on a Saturday afternoon to get together with your girlfriends or husband or whoever and go to a local winery and try out some amazing wine! Not only are you getting an awesome experience you are supporting local businesses and this is a cause that is very important to me.

Yesterday, I decided to take my husband to a newer winery that is right by our home, Harmony Winery. They are located on Allisonville Road close to 116th street in Fishers. I know, a strange place for a winery but it really is a great one! I had been there once before with my girlfriend, Jordan and we loved it!

The couple who own Harmony have been in the wine business since 2001 and they have received over 21 medals for their wine. The main draw on their winery is that you can actually make and bottle your own wine! While we were there yesterday, there was actually a couple who had made their wine and they had come back to bottle it so we got to watch the process of bottling and corking wine. It was very interesting!

After branching off from another U-vint franchise in 2006, the owners started their own U-vint business called Outtavine. This was very popular, but they wanted somewhere that they could produce and sell their wines. Thus, Harmony Winery was born!

It is absolutely darling inside and from the moment you walk in, you can tell that it is a very homey and comfortable atmosphere. There is soft music playing and there are plenty of couches and chairs for you to relax in as you drink your wine.

All of their bottles are on display so if you know which one you are looking for, it isn't hard to find!

We did a wonderful tasting of several different wines ranging from dry red to a sweet, rich port. You can taste 5 wines for free or you can pay $5 and try every wine that they have available for tasting, usually around 10-12 wines. I bet you can't guess what we did :) I have tried a lot of different wines from a lot of different wineries and this is the only one that out of all of the different wines that I have tried, I have never had one that I didn't like.

Sorry about the poor quality of this picture but it is the only one I have of me in the winery! I am typically more of a sweet wine drinker. I prefer my wine to be chilled and that typically means that it is a sweeter wine, but this Merlot that we tried was delicious!

They give you a check list so that you can mark off what you have tasted. I tasted everything that is marked off on here as well as Indigo  and the Eight Measure Port.

After our tasting, we decided on 2 bottles. We purchased the Staccato which is described as "fresh and lively, pleasant sweetness, strawberry notes, tangy acidity, crisp and delicate finish". We also bought a bottle of Indigo which is "tangy, sweet burst of blueberry, light-medium body and cherry spice flavors". They are both sweeter, more dessert wines but they are delicious :) 

Oh the glorious weekend...

I simply adore days when I get to "sleep in". I put this in quotation marks because for me, sleeping in is 7:30 or 7:45.I get up at 5:30 every day for work so my body just doesn't sleep late. Not that I would anyways! I only get 2 days a week off and I do not intend on spending them in bed!

This blog has 2 purposes:

1. To chronicle my tale of being healthy and sharing tips, tricks and recipes along the way.
2. To chronicle my life here in Indianapolis and share with you some of the awesome things that Indy has to offer.

It really is a cool city. There is so much to do here and the food scene just keeps growing! Here's a brief backstory on me.

I have lived in Indiana my whole life. I was born in Hagerstown and from there I have lived in New Castle, Hagerstown again, Milton, and Muncie. Most of my teenage years were spent in Muncie and that is where I call my home. I met my husband, Grant, when we were 14 years old in drivers ed. We didn't start dating until we were 17 though and we got married when we were 21. He is truly the love of my life. We lived in an apartment in Muncie with our cat for the first year and a half we were married. We both had jobs we loved. He was a sous chef at a local restaurant called Restaurant2(oh!)4 and I worked as a receptionist for a group of eye doctors. Well, last October that restaurant went under. Saying we were devastated would be an understatement. We loved that place as did all of our friends. Grant new he didn't want to go back to working for a chain restaurant and Muncie was seriously lacking in the food department. So he got a job at a new restaurant that was just opening up in Indy. I got a job as a Guest Relations Coordinator at a nursing home and we moved to Indy in December. We have since both changed jobs, he is at a new restaurant and I am still with the same company but I now do insurance billing and other business office work out of Greenwood. We have an adorable little apartment (which feels more like a mansion compared to where we did live) and we have also adopted another cat! Our sweet little Elsie Bell :)

Elsie Bell

Sable Mae

So through this blog I also want to tell you about all the exciting things and delicious restaurants that there are here and hopefully encourage you to check some out! I have some exciting things planned at some of my favorite Indy favorites today so there will be an exciting post to come!! 

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Food coma....

Ever heard of the term "food coma"? Well, I am most defintely in one right now......Lunch today consisted of chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, rolls and cookies. O.M.G. It was delicious! But now I am literally falling asleep at my desk. Come on 5:00! Tonight I am going to Cracker Barrel with my parents. It is seriously one of my favorite places to eat! I have been dreaming of my pinto beans with cornbread and apple cinnamon tea all day! Such a fall-like meal :)

Anywho..if you have never used this lotion I command you to drive to bath and body works right now and buy it! Well that may be a little dramatic but you should definitely consider getting it on your next shopping trip :) It smells amazing and it is the most fall-like scent ever! Mine currently lives on my desk and is used multiple times a day!

The best of intentions..

Yesterday went pretty well overall. I ate a healthy lunch and managed to only snack on a handful of candy corn M&M's and drink my unsweet tea. After work I was actually excited to get to the gym for my treadmill time. When I got there I opened my gym bag to find 1 sock. Just 1. I was incredibly frustrated. Since I am the kind of person that is too embarrassed to walk back past the front desk attendant who had just checked me in, I decided that I would just have to work out without socks on. Yea, gross. I knew that running was out of the question so I decided to walk for 30 minutes. I walked at a 3.8 and a 4 incline and by minute 20 my feet were screaming at me and they felt disgusting. But I kept pushing and got my 30 minutes done. By the time I got home my feet were in pretty bad pain. And now I have some lovely blisters on my feet. Fantastic. I don't think I am going to make it to the gym today anyways seeing as I have plans with my parents tonight so hopefully they will be healed up enough tomorrow to get a good workout in. (I am a huge baby when it comes to pain.)

Today is probably not going to be a model day in terms of healthy eating. We are having a carry-in at work of chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes and rolls and tonight I am going to cracker barrel with my parents. Carb-fest anyone?? But, in my quest for moderation and balancing being healthy and fit with being happy I am going to try to just relax and enjoy. I am planning on being very healthy this weekend and I have already started planning meals for next week.

So here is to a happy Friday and the joy of spending quality time with friends and family!

A realization...

Over the last few weeks I have been incredibly self-conscious about my weight. Now, I have been like this pretty much as long as I can remember but lately it has been worse. Mostly because I have gained quite a bit of weight. As I was sitting there looking at pictures from a recent Sunday afternoon and almost crying because of how I looked in said pictures it hit me, I have barely been working out and I have completely abandoned my healthy eating habits. What did I think would happen? Even though I am only 23, I can already tell a drastic difference in my body and the way it works since I was 18. In high school I ate whatever I wanted and only exercised when it was volleyball season or during the 5 minutes of exercise we would do before cheerleading practice and I always stayed a trim 105 pounds. After high school my weight went up a little bit but not enough that I was too concerned about it. Then I got married. After you get married, you suddenly feel the need to bake, cook and stay home and "be a wife." I was SHOCKED to find that I actually felt that way! I have never wanted to be a stay-at-home anything. I worked hard and spent a lot of money getting my college education and I really enjoy what I do. And even though I worked full time, I felt the need in the evenings to be home with my husband and cook and clean like a wife was supposed to do. This mentality has slowly crept up on me.

I work in an office at a computer all day. This is a toxic situation for someone trying to lose weight and get back into shape. I love my job but it can be hectic at times and that usually results in fast food breakfast on the way to work and lunch so that I can eat quickly. But am I really saving any time? This morning I made the decision to eat a healthy breakfast at work. I got some un-sweet tea (caffeine) and made myself a piece of whole wheat toast when I got to the office this morning. And you know what? It wasn't any harder than ordering a bagel or breakfast sandwich at the drive-through. As far as lunch goes, I spend so much time in the evenings watching TV or playing games on my phone that I could easily be making lunch for the next day.

As far as exercise, well that has been lacking lately. I am pretty consistent about going to my favorite class on Monday nights which is strength training. But any more than that? Not so consistent. I have managed to come to grips with the fact that working out hardcore at the gym 7 days a week is not really an option for me (nor is it usually the best option for anyone). There are some evenings when Grant is home and I really just want to go spend the evening with him and get things done that we have been putting off. And there is nothing wrong with that! I think shooting for 4-5 gym sessions a week and maybe a few Tone-it-Up routines at home in between is a good balance. So this afternoon I am going to go to the gym after work and get in some good old fashioned cardio. 3 miles on the treadmill. Run 1- walk 1- run 1. It may kill me tonight but I know that it will get easier. At one point I was running 5k's in 26:30 so I know I can do it!

I really like the "Lean, Clean and Green" philosophy of Tone it Up. While I do want to lose weight, I also want to be able to maintain it. I know that I could lose weight pretty quickly doing some fad diet or taking diet pills but as soon as I went back to a normal lifestyle all that weight would just pile right back on. And those things just aren't healthy and I want to be healthy, not just skinny!

So, I am going to try to really think about the decisions that I am making and what I am putting in my body. I am going to try to cook more at home and find healthy, new recipes to keep things from getting boring. I already have a trip planned for Saturday morning to visit my local farmer's market :) And along the way I am going to try to blog to keep myself accountable. I still haven't decided if I want to make this a public blog or just keep it to myself. I guess we will see how I progress :)